Families
by Kitty-Kat-Kates
Summary: Fred and Katie have fought for their lives in the battle of Hogwarts and both survived. But everything turns upside down when Katie's family is in danger. Will Katie be able to save her family? Fratie! Originally titled "Fireworks"
1. Chapter 1

**No, i don't own Fred, or George, or Katie, or Alicia, or Angelina, or even Oliver. Dang, eh? **

**All rights go to the amazing person that is Jo Rowling!**

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><p>Katie Bell flopped onto Charlie Weasley's vacant bed with a sigh. It had been a long day. She slowly brushed her curly blonde hair, ignoring her best friends' excited chattering. It was May 2nd and the battle of Hogwarts was over. Katie had managed to escape with some minor injuries: small burns up her left leg, scratches from climbing over the fallen walls of her school, and a bruised cheek from being struck by a crazed Death Eater. Overall, Katie was thankful that her family and friends made it out somewhat unscathed. She was overtired, and all she could think about was curling up on the bed she was sitting on and fall asleep for weeks, but Katie knew her friends would be disappointed in her. In the garden of the Burrow, a party was in full blast. She could hear laughter and music coming from outside of the window. Katie turned her head slightly to see fireworks shoot up from the far edge of the meadow, much to the crowd's enjoyment.<p>

"Katie Bell, wake up and come downstairs with us to party!" Alicia Spinnet chirped from a wooden chair on the far side of the plain room.

"Yeah, Kates. It won't be any fun without you." Angelina Johnson chimed.

"Fine. But just for half an hour. Then I'm going to bed." Katie stubbornly said as she braided her hair and threw on one of Fred's old quidditch sweaters with a pair of washed-out denim shorts.

"Deal! We're going to have so much fun!" Alicia squealed.

As the three girls walked out of the back door, Katie realized that there were tons more people at the Burrow than she thought. It seemed as though everyone from Katie's year at Hogwarts was in the grass, dancing, talking, or laughing with eachother.

"Ladies, you're looking good on this fine night," came two voices, chorused as one. The girls turned around to see two identical gingers walking towards them.

"Except for you, Kates, you look terrible!" exclaimed one of the twins.

"Oh, gee thanks George. And you wonder why I love Fred?" Katie replied sarcastically.

"It's okay, darling. I think you look amazing." Fred added with a grin as he walked forward to take Katie's hand.

"Right, well, I've had enough of this boring romance stuff." George said with a fake yawn. "Angie, fancy a snog?" He asked with a cheeky grin as he grabbed Angelina and walked off to find a bush or tree or shed for them.

"I'm gonna go …. find Oliver…" Alicia said to no one in particular as she dashed off into the crowd of partiers.

"Wow. That was fast. I thought it would take more to get them to go away" Katie said to Fred, as they started to walk towards a small clump of trees, away from the large group of people.

"George reckons that everyone is up for a good snog after today. We all thought we were going to die, after all." Fred replied seriously.

The couple sat down under a large oak tree, still holding hands. Katie looked at Fred's face and noticed that he looked pained.

"Freddie, are you okay?" Katie asked worriedly, while placing her free hand on his cheek.

"No, Kates. I thought I was going to die today. But that's not what scared me most. I thought that you were going to die too."

"Frederick Weasley, I'm alive and you are too. We survived, okay? Now we can live a long, happy life with the crazy people that we call friends and grow old."

"Katie, remember two weeks ago at my Aunt Muriel's when she asked if you and I were married yet? And then you said that you wish?"

"Yeah, Fred, I remember that. Why?"

"When everyone has settled down, will you marry me?"

"…"

"Kates?"

"…."

"Katie Bell, are you crying? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say anything that would make you cry. Did I do something wrong? Katie?"

"Fred…"

"We don't have to get married! Mum will probably kill us, but what does it matter? Just please, Kates, don't cry!"

"Fred"

"Honestly, Katie, it's no problem. We don't have to have any kids. They would be the worst kids in the world, anyways…"

"Fred Weasley! I'm crying because I'm happy, you git! Now shut up and kiss me."

And then Katie's lips met Fred's. Everything was right with the world. Katie knew that she was going to have a long, happy life with the strange, ginger boy that owned a prank shop. He was her rock, her warmth, and her soul mate.

"Oi, Fred-O! Stop snogging Katie and help me with these fireworks, will ya?"

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><p><strong>Want more? If anyone likes it, just comment and I'll post another chapter!<strong>

**xxooxx -Katie**


	2. Chapter 2

Weeks passed in a blur of strange uneventfulness. Katie stayed at the Burrow and helped Molly clean the whole house, top to bottom. It took a long time, even with wands. Only five of the Weasleys stayed in the Burrow. Ron had gone back to Hogwarts to finish his 7th year, Bill stayed in Shell Cottage with Fleur and Charlie remained in Romania, leaving Fred, George, Percy, and Mrs. and Mr. Weasley to keep Katie company. Although, Mr. Weasley recently got promoted at the Ministry, resulting in him staying long hours and sometimes disappearing for weeks on business trips. On top of that was Remus and Tonks' funeral which broke Katie's heart. Nymphadora Tonks had always been close to Katie ever since the two girls joined the order. Katie's older sister, named Stephanie, was killed while working as an Auror when Katie was in fourth year. Stephanie was a loyal member to the Order. During her sixth year, Katie found out about the Order of the Phoenix, and demanded that she joined to carry on her sister's work. Tonks knew how special Stephanie was, and slowly Katie became something like a sister to her. Katie often saw Tonks' broken body in her dreams and would wake up screaming, her face dripping with tears. After a while, everyone in the Burrow didn't react to Katie's nightmares because they knew nothing could be done. All of the survivors from the battle had nightmares.

Katie sat on a couch in the Burrow's living room, her feet curled under her and her long blonde hair in a bun. It was 6:48 in the morning and another one of those terrifying nightmares had hit her. Although Charlie's old bed was comfortable, the blankets felt suffocating and the room seemed stuffy. Katie wasn't able to fall back to sleep so she silently got dressed and crept down to the living room, where so many good memories had taken place in the years gone past. Rising from her perch on the couch, she walked to the back door. She opened the door slowly and slipped outside. Even though the war was over, she still scanned the corn fields for any unnatural movement.

'_Old habits die hard_,' The 19 year old thought with a smirk, sitting down on the steps and breathing in the early morning mid September air. The grass tickled her bare toes and made her shiver, as she was wearing only a long sleeved button up shirt and a pair of old jeans. It still seemed strange to her that she didn't have to carry around her wand, no matter where she went. The people of the wizard world were slowly returning to their old lives, although a little more cautious than before. Many had died at Hogwarts and the school would never quite be the same. Her pureblood family was completely untouched, living in a muggle suburb in London so Katie had no reason to worry. Her mum wanted her to move back home but to Katie, the Burrow was home. She always spent at least half of every summer holiday at the Burrow and the Weasley boys (minus Fred, of course) were like her overprotective, suspicious, quirky brothers. Once, in Diagon Ally, Katie was looking for a book for Transfiguration and Bill was assigned "Katie duty". A bloke walked up to Katie and asked if she needed any help and Bill cut in by putting his arms around her shoulders and steering her out of the shop, glaring at the poor man the whole way out. She could only imagine what was running through that guy's head.

Katie was shaken out of her thoughts as she heard shouting from inside. Glancing up at the sky, she realized that the sun was finally up. Katie twisted her body and dashed up the steps, throwing the door open and trying to not think the worst. Mrs. Weasley was running around the kitchen with her back turned to Katie, glancing through windows and opening doors everywhere. Katie could hear footsteps thundering upstairs and a name being called. Her name.

"Mrs. Weasley!" Katie called; slightly alarmed by the way the woman was acting. Molly Weasley turned to the tall, skinny blond and grief flooded her face.

"Boys! I've found her." She called up the stairs.

Immediately Fred, George, and Percy were in front of her, fully dressed. The group of men had the same identical grief-stricken faces. Mrs. Weasley sadly shook her head and walked upstairs. Percy avoided Katie's eyes as Fred and George simultaneously grabbed one of Katie's hands and led her to the couch to sit down. It was the same couch that Katie sat on earlier in the morning: orange plaid with a warm brown knitted blanket thrown overtop of it that strangely matched Fred's eyes.

"What's going on?" Katie demanded, watching everyone's faces. She noticed Percy's face was the first to break, revealing a flicker of fear resulting in a gasp from Katie. Fred, leaving his seat beside her on the couch, stood and smacked Percy up the side of the head lightly.

"Good job, you git. She's bloody terrified now." Fred growled to his older brother, fury in his brown eyes.

"She has to know anyways, Fred." George quietly mumbled from his seat on the couch, staring intently at his twin brother. Fred turned his head to look into George's eyes and then to look at Katie's terrified, grey eyes.

"Freddie? What's going on?" Katie whispered in a high pitched voice. Fear slowly overtook her and she saw images of her parents and younger brother being tortured by the remaining death eaters. Her brother was only 14. He should not have to deal with that pain. Katie herself knew the amount of pain the death eaters could hand out. During the battle a death eater had crept up behind her and set fire to her back. She would always have an ugly scar that reached from the bottom of her tail bone to the middle of her shoulder blades; no amount of magic could fix that.

"Kates, promise me you won't think the worse?" Fred walked towards her and kneeled down, gripping her face in both hands and staring into her eyes.

"There's been an accident, Katie" George spoke in a slow voice. He watched his brother, rather than Katie. It seemed like he didn't want to have to tell it to Katie straight and instead was trying to figure out how his brother would react to this situation.

"With my parents…. And my brother?" Katie questioned, looking from Fred to George. Fred was still holding onto her face, staring into her eyes.

"Yes, Katie, with your family." Percy finally spoke from across the room when no one would say anything. He rubbed his eyes and sat down on a wooden chair.

"Well then why are we waiting around here? I'm going to find them" The images of her family being hurt, burned, cursed, hexed, were all flashing before her eyes. Katie couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. Pushing Fred aside, she dashed up the stairs, leaving the three men looking dumbstruck, staring after her.

"You said she would cry." Percy noted, staring at his brothers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi****! Sorry, this has been literally the hardest thing to write ever. I think I started it last summer, and just couldn't figure out where I wanted to go with it! So now that I'm off for the summer, hopefully I will be able to update more frequently (lol not like once a year... woopsies!) Reviews are appreciated, and I always welcome constructive criticism. **

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><p>To any ordinary person, Summerhill seemed like a perfectly quaint village right in the middle of Ireland. To Katie Bell, however, it was the worst place in the world.<p>

As her worn Converse sneakers sped down Main Street, Katie was focused on staying calm. A visit to her hometown meant either someone had died or she was in trouble, both of which meant automatic nerves. Tapping her fingers on her legs, she quickly passed old book stores and pubs where her mates used to hang out. That was before Katie left Ireland permanently to go live at the Burrow.

You see, dear reader, Andy and Denise Bell aren't your typical pureblood parents. Growing up, Katie was encouraged to play with the muggle neighbors, but also remember her place in the wizarding world. Katie had absolutely no problem with this, except for one small detail: they wanted Katie to marry a muggle man. Specifically Gabe Murray. She was always pressured to come home for the holidays and see Gabe, when Katie was completely content with staying where she was in the wizarding world.

Katie and Gabe grew up together playing with the same muggle toys and reading the same muggle books. They learned how to walk on the same kitchen floor, and would drive their mothers crazy with mud pie fights and finger painting the walls of their houses. They were inseparable, up until the day that Katie left for Hogwarts.

When Katie left for Hogwarts, the two started to grow apart. Gabe went to a boarding school on the outskirts of Ireland; Katie never went back go her parent's house. Her first day of school was spent making friends with Angelina and Alicia, whom then introduced her to Fred and George Weasley. The twins quickly turned into her best friends. They were funny, loud, rambunctious, everything that took away the homesickness from Katie. So, when Fred and George convinced Katie to stay at the Burrow for a summer, Katie never went back. Gabe would constantly send her letters in their teenage years, begging her to come see him in Ireland.

It was sweet for the first few letters, but Katie eventually stopped responding and labeled him as a creep. Every letter started with 'Dearest Kates', which was the first problem. Katie refused to be called Kates, unless you were a ginger boy with a cocky smile, named Fred Weasley. Secondly, she realized that even if she did go home, they would have nothing to talk about. Her whole life would be a lie to him, she couldn't tell him about quidditch or Hogwarts.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she turned down a country road. Katie didn't really know what to expect, but when she turned from the paved road to a cobble stone path and a cottage came into sight, she gasped for breath. Her family's home seemed to be completely wrecked. What was once the roof was now a gaping hole in the top of the house, the walls were partly crushed, stone and brick were strewn about the lawn. Overall, the cottage looked as if a giant toddler had thrown a temper-tantrum and ripped the house apart.

Stepping carefully through the lawn, Katie spotted pieces of furniture in the rubble that was once the walls. The entire front of the house had been blasted apart, making it somewhat easy for Katie to step through and into the living room. Stony faced and quiet, Katie ghosted through the rooms of the house, looking for either bodies or sign of a struggle; she found none.

"Kates?" A familiar voice drifted through the air, making her jump slightly and grip her wand in her sleeve. When he came forward to embrace her, she breathed in his scent, drowning in it. And then she cried. The tears slipped down her face and she sobbed into his brown, worn coat. She cried for her parents and her brother, the only family she had left. She cried because she didn't know what to do now that they were missing. She cried because she was scared for everyone she knew. They just stood there, for what felt like hours to Katie, until she pulled away and looked into those deep brown eyes.

"Fred, what do I do?"

"We will find them, love. I promise." He murmured, bringing a hand up to wipe the tears from her face gently. His warm fingers whispered over her cheeks and traced the outline of her bottom lip.

And then the strangest thing happened: a pile of rocks groaned at Fred and Katie.

"Errrghhhh" the pile of rocks said. The pair jumped apart and whipped their wands out, pointing it at the verbal pile of rocks. Fred inched forwards and put a protective arm out to push Katie behind him slightly. Katie's eyes widened as Fred reached his left foot out to kick the pile.

"Oi! What was that for?" the pile of rocks questioned weakly. The voice sounded faint, but Katie strangely recognized it. Ignoring his grunt of protest, Katie pushed past Fred, pocketing her wand and started taking the rocks out of the pile. Eventually, the face of Gabe Murray peered back at Katie and Fred.

"Kates!" Gabe yelped in joy, oblivious to Katie's grimace.

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><p><strong>I will try to get an update out ASAP! Pinky promise! :)<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

"Who are you?" Gabe accused, jabbing his finger at Fred. It had taken less than five minutes to dig Gabe out of the pile of rubble, and he was now on his feet, perfectly fine other than a slightly bruised ankle.

"I'm Fred. Fred Weasley. Katie's boyfriend." Fred extended his hand to the other man, but Gabe just stared at him.

"Katie doesn't have a boyfriend." Gabe said, glaring at Fred.

"Erm… Yes, I do." Katie spoke up, eyebrows raised in astonishment.

"No, you don't, Kates, I was meant to be your boyfriend. I thought we had something special together." Gabe turned his watery blue eyes on Katie, disbelief and hurt pooled in them.

"That was eight bloody years ago! We were just children!" Katie exploded, filled with rage. "And if you call me Kates one more time, I will kick you so hard that you will not be able to have children, Murray."

Gabe gulped and took a step back. Fred snickered at his alarmed state. Frequent exposure to the Weasley twins had resulted in sweet, quiet 11 year old Katie to transform into feisty, 19 year old 'don't-bug-me-or-I'll-kick-your-ass' fearless Katie Bell, and Fred at that moment felt like grabbing Katie and kissing her.

"What happened, Gabe?" Katie asked after she had calmed down. The three of them had walked the short distance to a homey cottage down the street. Gabe's parents had moved to the coast of Scotland a few years ago, leaving Gabe their house. Katie couldn't help but smile as she remembered all the childhood memories in this house. Even the decorations and furniture were exactly the same. Gabe sat them down on an old couch and offered Katie a cup of tea, to which she declined.

"Yesterday night I heard some strange sounds coming from your parent's house. I was about to call the police, but I thought I'd check it out first. So I walked over there and saw some blokes in the front, giving your father some trouble. I walked over and one of them called me a weird slang word… 'Moogie' I think it was." Gabe stopped his story to scratch his head in confusion. Katie sent Fred an alarmed look, but Fred didn't seem phased.

"Anyways, your dad told me to go back to my house and I just remember waking up when I was rudely kicked." Gabe glared at Fred.

"So you don't remember what happened?" Katie asked, incredulously. "Nothing at all?"

"Nope, nothing." Gabe finished, standing up. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I have some important business to attend to." Gabe ushered the couple out of the house and slammed the heavy wood door closed.

"That was…" Katie started as they walked down the street.

"Yeah." Fred agreed, reaching for Katie's hand to apparate away.

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><p>At the shop later, Fred and Katie filled George in on everything that had happened.<p>

"This Gabe bloke sounds like a real laugh," George smirked, ignoring Katie and Fred's annoyed faces.

"George, not helping mate." Fred said, turning to greet a customer.

"So was your brother taken out of Hogwarts before they disappeared?" George asked Katie, as she pulled her hair up into a ponytail and tied a brightly colored WWW apron around her hips.

"Yeah, your mum said that Ron saw him leaving Hogwarts a few days before they were reported missing." Katie answered, flicking her wand as boxes of merchandise unpacked themselves and floated onto nearby shelves. It was a fairly quiet day for the shop, especially since school was still in. Customers filtered in and out of the shop at a calm pace, so Katie and the twins let the rest of the employees have the day off.

"Does the Order know anything about it?" Katie asked Fred as they stocked shelves of rubber chickens and boxes of puking pastilles.

"There's going to be a meeting tonight about your family." Fred said as he flicked his wand to make the empty boxes vanish. The rest of the day passed by quietly and Katie took the opportunity to think. It wasn't until closing time that something strange happened.

"Kat!" George called from across the store. "There's a letter here for you!"

Katie put down the broom that she was using to sweep with and walked into the back room where George was standing, waving around an envelope. Snatching it out of George's hand, she ripped the envelope open and extracted a handwritten note:

_Dearest Kaitlyn,_

_Roses are red,_

_Violets are blue,_

_If you keep snooping,_

_I will kill you too._

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><p><strong>Dunn dunn dunn! Hahaha hope y'all enjoyed this chapter, I'll hopefully be updating soon. No promises though, because this story is really hard to write! Blaah.<strong>_  
><em>

**Anyways, I always appreciate comments/criticism :)  
><strong>

**Much love!  
>-Katie xoxo<strong>


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